There certainly is some old time religion vocabulary in this gospel:a serpent, condemnation, light in the darkness, evil and wickedness!

Then again, maybe there’s a need for some old time religion responseto what’s happening all around us.2009lentpostcollectionThe story of the economic crisis and the stories of spinning from it,(tales of greed, schemes, reckless investments, bonuses, lies,cover-ups and selfishness beyond what anyone might have imagined)all painting a dark picture of human natureand how easily success and wealth and desire for themcan become our idols.

Of course, it’s easy to point to names and faces in the news and accuse.But in many ways, the news makers may be only ourselves - writ large.

What we desire, what we envy, what we hoard,what we are willing to do to get what we want and where we wantmay be determined less by the relative purity of our intentionsand more by the limits on what we have access to.

What would anyone of us have doneif offered one of those million dollar bonuses?

But there’s a brighter side, too.

Consider Paul Levy, the chief executive at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,who is working to cut the number of potential layoffs therefrom more than 600 to about 150through a combination of wage freezes,salary cuts in administrative jobs, and benefit reductions.

The steps he’s proposing, which would save $16 million, include:suspending the employer match for retirement plans;withholding some raises and rolling back executive increases;and eliminating cash payments for surplus earned time.

You might have seen an article in the paper recentlyreporting on a meeting Levy held with employeesat which he asked if workers in higher level positionswould be willing to forego some benefits due themin order to keep those in lower level jobs employed.His question was answered by“heartfelt, thunderous, sustained applause.”

That’s the brighter side of the dark picture I painted a moment ago.

- There are those who will take anything and everything they can get,regardless of the impact on others.

- There are those who are willing to forego what is justly due them,in order that others might not go without.

- And there are those who don’t really want to trample on othersbut who are reticent, slow, not inclined, fearful of letting gowhat’s rightfully theirs - for the sake of others.

If we weren’t followers of Jesus, then it would be easy to be generous:some canned goods for the food pantry, a tag from the Giving Tree,some coins in the Lenten Offering Box - that would suffice.

But we follow Jesus, who gave us the measureby which we are to measure our giving –and that measure is the Cross.

The employees at Beth Israel Hospital, may or may not be Christians,but they certainly give us Christians a sign of the kind of givingour faith requires of us.

It’s always easy to give from our surplus,from what we don’t really need.But the love of Jesus asks us to give from our want:to give even when we don’t have enough to giveor when it seems we have nothing left to give.

Indeed, in today’s gospel we were reminded:“God so loved the world, loved us,that he gave his only Son…”

When you begin to think, even to pray in these terms,then words likeeternal life, perish, born again, and truth -these words take on meaning as never before.

The more this economy pinches and squeezes and drains us,the more real will become the options faith sets before us.

What Jesus asked Nicodemus 2,000 years ago, he asks us:- will you choose to perish or to live?- will you prefer darkness or light?- will you choose the wicked or the good? the lie or the truth?

We gather every Sunday at this tablewhere we are fed with the life of Jesus in the Eucharist,fed with the life which is oursbecause he gave of his life - until there was nothing left to give -so that we might have life to the full.

May the sacrament we share here nourish in usthe love that gives freely of itself for the sake of others.

Are you thinking about becoming a Catholic?

The best place to start is always one of your local Catholic churches. Drop in some Sunday and see what's going on. Then you might speak to the pastor or someone on the parish staff about how they can help you and respond to your questions.